BEFORE: Paul McCartney carries over from "WBCN and the American Revolution", and suddenly I regret not taking the time over the long holiday weekend to watch the "Get Back" documentary. I've avoided it so far because of its length, and the fact that I prefer to think of it as a mini-series rather than a movie, because that makes it easier to not include it, but this would have been a PERFECT place to drop it in, if I had that kind of time. I still don't, though - I spent a good part of the weekend making a list of important things for me to do around the house and in my personal life, and I managed to check a couple of them off the list already, so that's a good thing. Still, I'm going to be very pissed if I construct an almost perfect chain for the year but come up one film short...
I'm skipping July 5 to catch up - and also to line up THIS film with a key date in Beatles history - actually TWO key dates in Beatles history (and really, I've been remiss so far this year in quoting anniversary dates of great moments in rock history...) July 6, 1957 was the infamous day that John Lennon and Paul McCartney first met, in the garden party at St. Peter's Church where the Quarrymen were performing. That's 65 years ago TODAY, John + Paul would have been about 15 years old. Also, July 6, 1964, or 58 years ago, was the premiere of the film "A Hard Day's Night" at the Pavillion Theatre in London.
FOLLOW-UP TO: "Sound City" (Movie #3,617), "Muscle Shoals" (Movie #3,624)
THE PLOT: On a remote Caribbean island, under the shadow of an active volcano, the world's biggest recording artists made music and myth that defined an era.
AFTER: Be careful, there are TWO films out there with the same title, "Under the Volcano" - one is a drama from 1984 featuring Albert Finney and it's airing on HBO Max, and the other is this recent documentary, airing on Showtime. The confusion almost prevented me from looking for this doc - I couldn't quite understand if Albert Finney played George Martin or what.
Well, if there's a common theme running through my documentaries this year, it's probably that everything, EVERYTHING, no matter how successful, has an expiration date. Whether that's a successful comedy career fueled by a drug habit, or a trendy and transformative radio station format, nothing lasts forever. And this brings us to the story of George Martin's AIR (Associated Independent Recording) studios in the far-flung island of Montserrat, in the British West Indies.
At a time when the Beatles' records were generating millions of pounds for EMI, George Martin, the most successful record producer ever, was receiving an annual salary of just 3,000 pounds, with no bonus. But by 1965 he had enough leverage to leave EMI, and open his own recording studios, which was free to be hired out to other musical acts. AIR Studios had three locations in the U.K., and was very successful - and George Martin got a share of royalties on any hits recorded in his studios, which made him a very rich man. OK, richer. After producing the theme for the Bond film "Live and Let Die" for his old pal Paul McCartney, and several hits for the band America (like "Sister Golden Hair"), Martin wanted to get out of London and take his studio on the road. The first plan, since money was no object, was to put a studio on a giant ship, but he was told that the ship's diesel engines would create so much noise that it would interfere with the recording. (I'm not sure if this was true, or some recording engineers were just afraid of drowning while working on an album...)
So, on to the next plan - Martin visited the Caribbean island of Montserrat in 1979, and fell in love with it - and bought property there without really thinking it through. Must be nice. Then a very expensive building (or perhaps re-design) of a mansion there, and another very expensive delivery and installation of recording and mixing equipment, and AIR Studios Montserrat was born. Nobody, nobody, gave a thought to the volcano on the island - which had been classified as "dormant" by vulcanologists, but that world means "sleeping", not the same as "inactive". Anything that is sleeping has the potential to wake up one day...
But before that happened, there were ten very productive years of recording in the Caribbean, this is where McCartney recorded two albums, one shortly after John Lennon died, and one that produced the smash hit "Ebony and Ivory". In the early 1980's, the Police recorded three albums there, and you can't argue with the success of "Ghost in the Machine" and "Synchronicity", and if you watch the music video for their hit "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic", it was filmed inside the studio control room at AIR Montserrat, with added exterior footage of the island's citizens. And come on, "Every Breath You Take" was the biggest hit in the world in 1983.
Another giant hit was "Money for Nothing", by Dire Straits, which was also recorded in AIR Montserrat - and Mark Knopfler, who had noticed the Police shilling for MTV in promos, really wanted to have Sting record that line "I Want My MTV" as part of the song - so, as luck would have it, the Police had recorded in Montserrat right before Dire Straits, and Sting had stuck around on the island after the sessions for some vacation time (Sting and the other members of the Police had all recently split with their wives, and I guess Sting needed some time alone...again, must be nice.). The whole "Brothers In Arms" album was recorded on the island, and I remember how amazing that album was, I listened to it often on cassette in 1986.
(NITPICK POINT: I don't know, the chronology here doesn't really add up - Sting was on vacation after recording, and just happened to be in Montserrat for the production of "Money for Nothing"? The Police album "Synchronicity" was recorded from December 1982 to February 1983, and the Dire Straits album "Brothers in Arms" was recorded from October 1984 to February 1985 - I don't think Sting took a 20-month vacation on the island. Perhaps Sting was there recording some solo projects, that might make more sense, that timeline might work out, only Wikipedia says his first album "The Dream of the Blue Turtles" wasn't recorded at AIR Studios - so the story doesn't really hold water.)
Anyway, during that ten-year period, AIR Studios also hosted such notable acts as Elton John, Earth Wind & Fire, Rush, Black Sabbath, Duran Duran, Marvin Gaye, Luther Vandross, OMD and Sheena Easton, and when the Rolling Stones wanted to get back together after the Jagger/Richards separation, they recorded in Montserrat, because why not? Who would pass up the chance to record on a beautiful tropical island, in the middle of nowhere, while living in a fantastic house, basically a working vacation among friendly locals. Ironically, the Rolling Stones had quite a reputation for destroying both hotel rooms AND recording studios - but AIR Montserrat was so nice that they left it alone, more or less. However, a few weeks later...
Hurricane Hugo hit the island - ha, a twist, I bet you thought the volcano was going to wipe out the studio, but no, it was a hurricane. It turned out that recording technology was changing very quickly, and by 1989 most everything was being done digitally, which meant that albums could be recorded almost anywhere. The industry was also changing from a financial perspective, after the CD-driven boom of the mid 1980's, everyone was looking to tighten their budgets, so less money was being devoted to recording sessions. So there's no telling how long AIR Studios would have been financially viable before the hurricane hit.
Boom, another twist, six years later in 1995, the volcano DID erupt - the studio never rebuilt after the hurricane, but now after the second disaster, it was clear that a recording studio really didn't belong on an island paradise. (The Earth was fine, but it was the Wind and the Fire that did it in.). The abandoned studio was on the edge of the "exclusion zone", which meant that the area was uninhabitable and not safe for travel. For ten years, AIR Studios was the place to be, but as stated above, everything has an expiration date - remember all those old "Behind the Music" specials on VH-1? We used to tune in and wait for the inevitable line, "Then, it all came crashing down...". George Martin lived another 27 years, and despite this disaster, he had a really good run. The old recording studio is apparently a resort hotel now, so I guess there's that.
Also starring Malcolm Atkin, Gerry Beckley (America), Jimmy Buffett, Justin Cassell, Ray Cooper, Stewart Copeland (last seen in "Bitchin': The Sound and Fury of Rick James"), Andy Summers (ditto), Sting (last seen in New Wave: Dare to Be Different"), Neil Dorfsman, Guy Fletcher (Dire Straits), Minetta Allen Francis, Roger Glover (Deep Purple), Dave Harries, Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath), Steve Jackson, Davey Johnstone, Chris Kimsey, Ian Little, Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits), Giles Martin, Judy Martin, George "Tappy" Morgan, Lloyd Oliver, Nigel Olsson, Desmond Riley, Nick Rhodes (last seen in "The Sparks Brothers"), Yve Robinson, John Silcott, Michael Paul Stavrou, Danny Sweeney, Chris Thomas, Midge Ure (last seen in "New Wave: Dare to Be Different"), Verdine White, Rose Willock,
with archive footage of Barbara Bach, Philip Bailey (Earth, Wind & Fire), Syd Barrett (Pink Floyd), Jeff Beck (last seen in "Zappa"), Dewey Bunnell (America), Kate Bush, Eric Clapton (last seen in "The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart"), Mick Fleetwood (Fleetwood Mac, ditto), Alan Clark (Dire Straits), Phil Collins, Roger Daltrey (also carrying over from "WBCN and the American Revolution"), George Harrison (ditto), Mick Jagger (ditto), John Lennon (ditto), Freddie Mercury (ditto), Lou Reed (ditto), Ringo Starr (ditto), John Deacon (Queen, last seen in "Bohemian Rhapsody), Roger Taylor (Queen, ditto), Sheena Easton, Geoff Emerick, Brian Eno, Bryan Ferry, Boy George, Ian Gillan (Deep Purple), Mark Goodman (MTV, also last seen in "New Wave: Dare to Be Different"), Corey Hart, Elton John (last seen in "Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice), Keith Richards (ditto), Simon Le Bon (Duran Duran), Annie Lennox, George Martin, Nick Mason (Pink Floyd), Brian May (Queen, last seen in "Pavarotti"), Linda McCartney (last seen in "The Sparks Brothers"), Christine McVie (Fleetwood Mac, last seen in "Sound City"), John McVie (Fleetwood Mac, ditto), Carl Perkins (ditto), Dee Murray, Olivia Newton-John (last seen in "Tina"), Phil Spector (ditto), Spike Milligan, Gerry Rafferty, Diana Ross (also last seen in "Bitchin': The Sound and Fury of Rick James"), Stevie Wonder (ditto) Siouxsie Sioux, Cat Stevens, Dave Stewart (Eurhythmics), James Taylor (last seen in "David Crosby: Remember My Name"), Luther Vandross, Roger Waters (Pink Floyd), Charlie Watts (Rolling Stones, last seen in "The Velvet Underground")), Ronnie Wood (Rolling Stones, last seen in "Shine a Light"), Richard Wright (Pink Floyd), Bill Wyman (Rolling Stones, also last seen in "Zappa")
RATING: 7 out of 10 gold records on the wall
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